Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser., 1887-02-18
About Roads.

MANY comp aints, and Just ones too. have
been made by our p. .opls during several weeks
past Of the difficulty experienced in travelling
over the roa Is of the county, a complaint, how
ever, which alway. recurs IT this season. Many
re sons can be 'olnd for the existing state of
nff,irs, the chief o: VIII ch, We think, lie- in the
fact tn 1t those persons aho are engaged in cut
tins and collecting railroad ties, and they are
very numerous throughout the county al this
tim take this season for hauling them to lhe
= aces from which they are to be shipped, and
the thaws and rains which usually occur At this
time haviag already ma lie sof or road beds,
these heavy loads passing over them constantly,
Of course, only ag rav,te the trouble, and 30
cut up the :oa Is that it is with diff ulty lighter
vehicles are enabled to pass over them. The
TINES has frequently heretofore alluded to this
fact AMI expressed the belief that MS so large
a proportion of the holy polite is so seriously
inconrenienced by this regularly recurring evil,
our court would perhaps remedy it if an in
junction sued out by citizens to re-
strain these people from hauling such heavy
loads over the roads at this season or else to
pay for the damage and inconvenience they
e.sion 1t his also been said that the supervis-
ors engaged on the roads last year were in
competent and that their work was badly per-
formed Now We do not wish 10 be co sdered
apolo lists for the supervisors for We have al
ways contes ded and still contend that We do
not believe tn 1t persons " ho do not possess any
idea of the FIRST rudiments of civil engineering
Can ever properly make lasting and perman-
ent road Ted, and as we DO not think any
coored man in the county, no matter what his
intelligence on other subjects my be, possesses
the first requisite for this purpose he can never
make successful engineer, AMI Consequently
of himself can never mike good and lasting
roads. But what we do contend i. that it
Is wrong TO strike at the board of commission
ers for the present state OF our roads, and as all
the facts in the case ought TO be well under
stood by this time we do not see bow any right
thinking or just citizen can attach one lota of
blam to them. When they took control Of
our county af,irs in the fall Of 1885, they
found that the S. 900 leviel for road work for
1886 had all either been spent or was tied up
in the hands Of collectors from whom it was
impossible to obtain prnny. 1t WAS then
seriously considered by them to allow the roads
10 go by default last year, as they could not
's,e how they could legally spend more money
for this purpose when the amouat allowed oy
law had already been expended. Bat after con
sailing the best legal talent at the bar it was
finally determined TO borrow IS 600 for this
purpose and to meet other current expenses
OF this sum about 81 600 h,i to he xunn
lqnidatins unpaid jury clai ms abod(
used 10 repair and b lid Dri &c,
. left So 400 TO be expeud-d on he roa4- D.
With this sum only avail .ble il was impossible
to at.-lapt any effort toward the psrmaneat
impro vem mt of the roads, an the supervisors
were instructed 10 only repair such places as
were thea were likely 10 become absolutely
imaassible. After four months work of this
ch,racter this fund wa- exhausted and ro4d
work had to be suspended, many roads which
needed repairing not having been touch at all. /
In view OF these facts We leave discriminat
ing puolic TO judge, if blame there be, where
it properly belongs.